I know that escaped Bobwhites crop up pretty often in Western
Washington. I've heard them myself in Discovery Park. My question is:
are there any areas where the escapees are breeding and have sustained a
population for a while? Although I am hoping for a general answer, the
specific incident that brought the question to mind was a sighting on the
Everett Christmas Bird Count, from the Sylvana area, up near the
Stillaguamish river flats. I am wondering whether it is "countable."

I should say for any ABA type birders out there that the standards
for "countability" on a CBC may be less strict than for other purposes.
Since the purpose of the count is to track population trends, records of
such birds as Mute Swans, which are probably not "officially" established
in Washington, but which are here and probably increasing, are of enough
interest to justify including in count totals (at least in my opinion).
Likewise, if there are small pockets of Bobwhite breeding fairly
consistently for a period of years, it's probably worth noting that. If
all the bobwhites are recent releases/escapees, then they're not worth
mentioning.

I'd be grateful for any light anyone can shed on this.

Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu